The family was halfway through breakfast when a visitor came bearing news to Jogr.
"Village Chief, there's a delegation from Nagwa who wants to speak with you," the visitor, a skinny guy in his early 20's said.
"Thank you, Gupm," Jogr said. He invited the young man to have breakfast with them in a gesture of politeness as well as in keeping with the village's customs. The messenger had a bad reputation among the villagers, so Jogr wasn't really feeling generous with his blessings. Besides, it was his brother-in-law who hunted the boar whose meat the family had been relishing for the past few days.
Gupm refused in an act of false modesty, but didn't hurry to leave. He then commented on how appetizing their meal looked. He had a drooling look on his face.
"Nangku, why does he say he doesn't want to eat with us when he's salivating like a hungry dog?" Hegla asked innocently.
Blink tried his best to keep a straight face but failed miserably.
Jogr shook his head and offered a seat for Gupm. As the village chief, he must always strive not to unnecessarily offend people even as he tried to pay homage to generosity and magnanimity.
The man dropped all pretense, immediately sat down and shamelessly helped himself to the food. He took a large chunk of meat and put it on his plate. He then added a huge amount of rice such that his plate was an intimidatingly large mound of rice and pork.
Blink was astounded at the sight of so much food on a single plate. There was enough food on the plate to feed three large men. Blink doubted that this skinny guy could actually finish off his plate.
Then, Gupm started eating and Blink was left gawking at how fast the skinny man gobbled up the feast before him.
He was about to dig some more when Jogr placed his plate under the ladle being held by the skinny young man.
"What do the people from Nagwa want?" Jogr asked the gluttonous messenger.
Hegla suddenly butted in before Gupm could respond.
"Nangku, how come he eats so much, yet he looks so famished?"
"Because he talks when his mouth is full. That's why the food goes right out of his rear end instead of nourishing his body. So, you little princess should chew your food well and never talk when your mouth is full."
Jogr felt like he was about to have a headache. His brother-in-law may sound gentle, but he could be really crude and insensitive towards others.
But while Jogr wanted to be as civil as possible, Magra was not about to indulge him.
"When you eat as though the food might run out, it will run out," she said very gently but with an unmistakably facetious smile.
If earlier Jogr thought he was about to have a headache, Magra just made sure he was going to have one.
Before anyone from his own family said anything to add to his oncoming headache, Jogr repeated his question to Gupm.
"What do the people from Nagwa want?"
"They said they have a problem they hope you could help them with," Gupm answered. "They didn't want to say anything else except to request that you bring Kraszad here along with you."
After saying as much, the skinny young man dug into the food excitedly. As soon as he had refilled his plate, Magra grabbed the serving bowl and returned the stew to the pot. The guy hardly noticed as his attention was fully engaged into stuffing his mouth like the glutton that he was.
Jogr shook his head and decided to go meet the visitors from Nagwa. He asked for Blink to come join him at the village center later on. His brother-in-law was not yet done feeding Hegla.
Before he had stepped ten meters away from his house, Jogr heard his gluttonous guest ask for one more serving. He was unceremoniously rebuffed by Magra who snapped, "My nimgun had staked life and limb to take down this boar and now you've just eaten more of its meat in one sitting than he had eaten for three days!"
Jogr shook his head while his mouth twitched into a smile. "As long as she said it while I wasn't around," he chuckled and went on his way.
At the village center Jogr met the delegation from Nagwa and exchanged pleasantries before getting down to business.
They were about to get to the point of the guests' visit when Blink emerged in their field of vision. He was wearing his brown robe and he held a quarter staff in one hand.
Jogr had always wondered why his brother-in-law was given the nickname Blink at the academy. Surely it wasn't because he blinked while he fought. Unfortunately, it seemed that the elite disciples of the Ragha Martial Arts Academy also had no idea why their seniors named them so. To them, having a nickname bestowed by their seniors was the point and not why they were so named.
Blink stopped ten meters away from them and called them over.
"Let's go!" he bellowed to the group.
"Aren't you even going to ask them what their business is?" Jogr objected.
"Isn't it obvious? They wanted me to deal with bandits or thugs."
Having said that, Blink immediately set off towards the direction of Nagwa. The village north of Nagwa lies east of Kasgar and north of the town of Calandra.
Since Blink had already moved, Jogr and the Nagwa delegation were forced to follow after him. Jogr thought the stunned expressions of his guests were quite priceless and smiled to himself.
'Let's see how these folks try to catch up with my nimgun,' Jogr thought happily. When it came to covering distances with his legs, Blink had no equal. They would have to actually run to keep pace with his walking speed.
Along the way, Jogr learned that they indeed came to ask for help regarding a large group of bandits who came to extort from them.
After more than ten minutes of trying to chase after Blink, many of the Nagwa folks were already huffing and puffing. Two of them were actually coughing. They shouted after Blink begging for him to wait up.
Blink waited for them to catch up. Jogr could see that he didn't look too happy about it.
As soon as they were able to catch up, Jogr took the time to introduce the most elderly member of the Nagwa delegation.
"Nimgun, this is Elder Keln. He is the village chief of Nagwa. Elder this is my brother-in-law Kraszad. He is better known as Blink of the Ragha Martial Arts Academy."
"It is an honor to finally meet you," Elder Keln said between huffs. "This pretty young lady behind me is my granddaughter, Marve."
"This junior disciple has met Elder for the first time," Blink said and bowed before Elder Keln. The Nagwa village chief was quite pleased with the courtesy. However, to his dismay, Blink merely nodded at his granddaughter then immediately turned around and resumed walking.
Jogr was totally amused at the disbelieving look in the faces of the men from Nagwa. He understood perfectly that his Nagwa counterpart brought his granddaughter with the hope that perhaps his brother-in-law might find her attractive and get a top martial artist to marry into the family.
As for Blink, Jogr knew that he may look and sound gentle but he had a gruff personality with too many rough edges.
"Elder Keln, please don't take it to heart," Jogr apologized on behalf of Blink. "My brother-in-law has a lot of things on his plate at the moment and tends to be easily distracted lately."
"Is that so?" Elder Keln asked in response. "In that case, it should be us who should apologize for adding to his distractions."
The elder may have sounded apologetic, but Jogr knew he was totally disappointed. He even gave his granddaughter a look that told her she was useless.
Knowing how fast Blink could walk, the group did not bother to keep up anymore and just proceeded towards Nagwa at their normal pace.
When they reached the village entrance, they found Blink sitting cross-legged with eyes closed. He stood up as soon as they reached him. "Where can I find those bandits?" he asked without preambles.
Elder Keln had an awkward expression on his face. "We were hoping to gather enough men to help you deal with them," he explained.
"There's no need for additional men," Blink said it so confidently it was almost cocky.
"But there are more than thirty of them," Elder Keln explained.
"More than thirty? They're just bandits. It's not a big deal."
Elder Keln looked towards Jogr. He seemed at a loss for words.
"If my brother-in-law says he could handle over thirty bandits, I'm sure he really means it," Jogr assured the group.
"I've taken down twice that number at Calandra," Blink stated matter-of-factly.
As Elder Keln could not find words to dissuade Blink, he eventually relented and pointed him towards the camp of the bandits east of the village.
Blink happily rushed towards the direction given, leaving everyone with mouths hanging. Jogr could no longer hide his amusement and chuckled merrily.
"I'm sorry, but my nimgun does think very little of bandits," he said in apology.
Meanwhile, Elder Keln hastily ordered the men with him to gather the men of the village quickly and help Blink sort out their trash.
In less than ten minutes a strong group of men gathered around the village chief. Elder Keln wasted no time and set out immediately. He thoughtfully instructed his granddaughter to direct the other men towards the bandits' camp when they arrived.
When they reached the bandits' camp, there wasn't a single bandit standing. Many were lying on the ground unconscious while those who weren't were clutching their legs or arms while crying in agony.
At the center of the encampment, Blink was poking his wooden rod at the buttocks of a bandit. They recognized the bandit as the leader of the gang. The men were talking about how arrogant the bandit leader was when he was threatening to burn their houses and play with their women if they did not pay his gang for their protection. That was only two days ago. And now he looked like a horribly pathetic wimp who screamed in terror every time Blink poked his stick into his buttocks.
The bandit leader tried to cover the part of his buttocks where his discard comes out, but Blink mercilessly whacked his hand. He also tried to roll on his back, but Blink mercilessly struck his shin and knees before rolling him back on his stomach with a brutal kick to the ribs.
Blink persisted for about twenty minutes before finally giving up on sodomizing the man with his staff.
"I think I know now why they call him the Butt-Sticking Brownie," one of the villagers stated the obvious.